Well done CarinaO! I also broke out in cold sweats in the middle of the night over this one, but I, too have made it. So if I work really hard for another 5 months or so, the degree is mine, too. Looking forward to it.

Are you going to fill in the gap between now and next year with NDPs? Or are you going to experiment with having a life again?

Thanks Tazz and Eddy!
@Eddy: No, I'm going to experience life without studying (what's that?) for a little while before continuing with Honours. I'm thinking of first seeing (or praying?) my daughter through school before doing that (she's in Grade 10 now), but it depends on how bored I get during the next few months. For now I'd just like to take a break, catch up on reading, movies and tv series that I usually miss, maybe take up scuba-diving in summer, ballroom dancing in spring, who knows? The world is my oyster....

I think after the bit of "hard Yakka" as the Aussies call it, all those things are going to seem the sweeter for it. "Seem" is probably the wrong word. Scuba, ballroom dancing, movies are all wonderful things to do, but if they're too convenient to hand one loses track of just how fantastic all these supposedly "ordinary" things really are.

Even TV, perish the thought! I can still remember watching Wielie Walie and Haas Das Se Nuus Kas, even though I was much too old to be watching that kind of thing. When that evil little box of pictures first arrived it was a wonder, no part of which must be missed... And it was! Still is. Only it's convenient to hand so it starts to join the "boring old" washing machine... Which is a wonder all of its own, isn't it?

Somehow successfully defeating jadedness can add more value to the experience of life than throwing any amount of money at whatever can. Turn off the telly.